We've been playing Isla by Ian Dicke non-stop since December 2013 because it's one of our favorite pieces so we think it's about time that we wrote a little profile about Ian on our blog.
Isla was commissioned by our friends Kristin Hayes and Eric Peterson of the Peterson-Hayes Duo. It is a remix of Isla de Niños by Elisa Ferrari.
Our performance of Isla by Ian Dicke during our residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute. (June 9, 2014)
BIO
Ian Dicke (b. 1982) is a composer inspired by social-political culture and interactive technology. Active in a diverse array of genres and multi-media, Dicke’s music exhibits a clarity of expression while integrating acoustic ensembles with cutting edge audio processing techniques. Praised for his “refreshingly well-structured” (Feast of Music) and “uncommonly memorable” (Sequenza 21) catalogue of works, Dicke currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Digital Composition at the University of California, Riverside.
Dicke’s music has been commissioned and performed by ensembles and festivals around the world, including the New World Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, ISCM World New Music Days, and the Atlantic Coast Center Band Director’s Association. Upcoming projects in the 2013-2014 season include a new work for the Friction Quartet and an interactive electronics and video piece for the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dicke has received grants, awards, and recognition from the Fulbright Program, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, New Music USA, New York Youth Symphony, ASCAP, and BMI, among others. He has been an artist in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Art342, and spent the 2012-2013 academic year living in Sweden as a Fulbright scholar researching interactive musical interfaces and environments.
In addition to his creative activities as a composer, Dicke is also the founder and curator of the Outpost Concert Series in Riverside, CA and co-directs Fast Forward Austin, a music festival held annually in Austin, TX. Both organizations are dedicated to presenting adventurous music and fostering community engagement through key outreach initiatives and collaborative projects.
Dicke holds degrees from The University of Texas at Austin (D.M.A), University of Michigan (M.M.), and San Francisco Conservatory of Music (B.M.). For more information on works in progress, upcoming performances, commissioning, and score rentals, visit his website.
Q & A WITH IAN DICKE
A/B: Stay-cation or vacation?
Ian: Vacation!!!
A/B: Nsync or Backstreet?
Ian: I never quantified it scientifically, but Nsync's writers seemed to use more chords than the Backstreet Boys, so they were always my de facto 90's boy band preference.
A/B: Sibelius or Finale?
Ian: I've been using Sibelius since 2001, but will probably abandon the platform if Avid continues to charge for iterative updates.
A/B: What was your first Instrument?
Ian: Guitar (big surprise!)
A/B: Guilty pleasure?
Ian: Playing around with Max/Msp (I'm such a computer dork).
A/B: Favorite breakfast food?
Ian: Breakfast tacos!
A/B: What was your first composition?
Ian: Motives for the left hand, solo piano. It's a Scriabin knock-off that helped me get accepted into the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Little did I know that writing that piece would completely change the course of my life!